| Vimba vimba | |
|---|---|
| Conservation status | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Actinopterygii |
| Order: | Cypriniformes |
| Family: | Cyprinidae |
| Genus: | Vimba |
| Species: | V. vimba |
| Binomial name | |
| Vimba vimba (Linnaeus, 1758) |
|
Vimba vimba, called also the vimba bream,[1] vimba,[1]zanthe,[1] or zarte,[2] is a European fish species in the Cyprinidae family.
Vimba vimba is distributed in fresh waters and in brackish estuaries of rivers draining to the Caspian Sea, Black Sea and Baltic Sea, and in the North Sea basin in the Elbe and Ems drainages. There are records from Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Hungary, Iran, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, and Ukraine.
This species weight from 1 to 3 kg (2 to 6.5 pounds) and can grow up to 50 cm long.
The vimba is a semi-anadromous fish, which migrates from brackish water to rivers for spawning. Permanently fresh-water populations exist as well. In the Baltic Sea the species is distributed up to 62°-63° N in Sweden and Finland.
For instance, in Lithuania the fish leaves the Baltic in May and enters into the Nemunas River to spawn. The eggs are laid in shallow waters, which are usually in semi-fast moving parts of smaller tributaries. Every year there is a festival along the shore of the Nemunas to celebrate this fish.